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CU-Boulder to probe how sleep deprivation affects gut microbes

By Charlie Brennan, Staff Writer

Posted:
05/05/2016 11:07:27 AM MDT

Updated:
05/05/2016 11:27:27 AM MDT

A team led by the University of Colorado has received a $7.5 million grant from the Department of Defense to study how gut microbes in humans and animals are affected by stressors like sleep deprivation and circadian clock issues.

The five-year award is intended to help scientists determine which specific changes in gut bacteria occur in response to sleep disturbances and the misalignment of 24-hour circadian rhythms. Researchers will search for countermeasures as a way to increase stress resilience during U.S. Navy operations, according to CU Professor Kenneth Wright of the Department of Integrative Physiology. He is the project's lead investigator.

Previous human and animal studies, several led by CU, have shown the potential influence on health by the more than 10 trillion microbes believed to inhabit the human body. Scientists have evidence that the collection of gut microbes may influence anxiety, obesity, autism, depression and cancer.

Wright, who directs CU's Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory, said in a news release that team members' effort is unique because researchers will be studying humans, mice and rats simultaneously. Wright team will be seeking to link changes in the types of microbiota to physiological, cognitive and emotional responses.

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The human part of the study will take place in part Wright's sleep lab at CU, where 50 adult test subjects will spend five consecutive 24-hour days on two separate occasions during a 39-day protocol over the course of the research.

The team also includes professor Rob Knight and associate professor Pieter Dorrestein of the University of California San Diego. Knight is a former CU faculty member.

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